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Indicators for the on-farm assessment of crop cultivar and livestock breed diversity: a survey-based participatory approach

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Abstract

Agrobiodiversity plays a fundamental role in guaranteeing food security. However, still little is known about the diversity within crop and livestock species: the genetic diversity. In this paper we present a set of indicators of crop accession and breed diversity for different farm types at farm-level, which may potentially supply a useful tool to assess and monitor farming system agrobiodiversity in a feasible and relatively affordable way. A generic questionnaire was developed to capture the information on crops and livestock in 12 European case study regions and in Uganda by 203 on-farm interviews. Through a participatory approach, which involved a number of stakeholders, eight potential indicators were selected and tested. Five of them are recommended as potentially useful indicators for agrobiodiversity monitoring per farm: (1) crop-species richness (up to 16 crop species), (2) crop-cultivar diversity (up to 15 crop cultivars, 1–2 on average), (3) type of crop accessions (landraces accounted for 3 % of all crop cultivars in Europe, 31 % in Uganda), (4) livestock-species diversity (up to 5 livestock species), and (5) breed diversity (up to five cattle and eight sheep breeds, on average 1–2).We demonstrated that the selected indicators are able to detect differences between farms, regions and dominant farm types. Given the present rate of agrobiodiversity loss and the dramatic effects that this may have on food production and food security, extensive monitoring is urgent. A consistent survey of crop cultivars and livestock breeds on-farm will detect losses and help to improve strategies for the management and conservation of on-farm genetic resources.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the EU-project ‘BioBio - Indicators for biodiversity in organic and low-input farming systems’ (EU Seventh Framework Program [227161]). We appreciate the collaboration of all partners who accomplished the interviews and thank all farmers involved for their collaboration and their willingness to answer all our questions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agroscope, Institute for Sustainability Sciences ISS, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046, Zurich, Switzerland

    Luisa Last, Felix Herzog, Philippe Jeanneret, Gisela Lüscher & Roland Kölliker

  2. BOKU, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, 1180, Vienna, Austria

    Michaela Arndorfer & Jürgen K. Friedel

  3. Institute of Environmental and Landscape Management, Szent Istvan University, Godollo, 2100, Hungary

    Katalin Balázs

  4. Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Wales, SY23 5AL, UK

    Peter Dennis

  5. Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University, Bila Tserkva, 09117, Ukraine

    Tetyana Dyman

  6. Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, P.O. Box 115, 1431, Ås, Norway

    Wendy Fjellstad

  7. Forestry School, University of Extremadura, 10600, Plasencia, Spain

    Gerardo Moreno

  8. Makarere University, 7062, Kampala, Uganda

    Norman Kwikiriza

  9. Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ETSE/ICTA), Universitat Autonoma Barcelona, Campus of Bellaterra Cerdanyola del Valles, 08193, Barcelona, Spain

    Tiziano Gomiero

  10. Department of Biology, Padova University, via U. Bassi 58/b, 35121, Padua, Italy

    Tiziano Gomiero & Maurizio G. Paoletti

  11. SOLAGRO, Initiatives and Innovations for Energy, Agriculture and Environment, 31076, Toulouse, France

    Philippe Pointereau

  12. INRA/ENSAT, UMR 1201 Dynafor, 31326, Castanet-Tolosan, France

    Jean-Pierre Sarthou

  13. Institute of Plant Genetic Resources K.Malkov, 4122, Sadovo, Bulgaria

    Siyka Stoyanova

  14. Centre of Life and Food Science, Munich Technical University, 85350, Freising, Germany

    Sebastian Wolfrum

Authors
  1. Luisa Last
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  2. Michaela Arndorfer
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  3. Katalin Balázs
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  4. Peter Dennis
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  5. Tetyana Dyman
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  8. Felix Herzog
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  9. Philippe Jeanneret
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  10. Gisela Lüscher
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  13. Tiziano Gomiero
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  14. Maurizio G. Paoletti
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  15. Philippe Pointereau
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  16. Jean-Pierre Sarthou
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  17. Siyka Stoyanova
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  18. Sebastian Wolfrum
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  19. Roland Kölliker
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Correspondence to Roland Kölliker.

Additional information

Communicated by Anurag chaurasia.

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Supplementary material 1 (PDF 4127 kb)Suppl.1 Genetic Diversity Questionnaire

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Last, L., Arndorfer, M., Balázs, K. et al. Indicators for the on-farm assessment of crop cultivar and livestock breed diversity: a survey-based participatory approach. Biodivers Conserv 23, 3051–3071 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-014-0763-x

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